Hi, Could anyone please offer some advice on the following: Is it a legal requirement for all members of staff that are conducting manual handling activities to be manual handling trained and certified? Or is it simply a case that as long as you have risk assessments in place, official manual handling certification is not required? Any assistance would be appreciated. Many thanks

It depends on the assessment, there are only three things you can do to reduce risk for manual handling, remove the person, provide equipment and provide training. Training to provide competency need not be certified, but certification of some sort may add to the value of the training. The important thing for training is that it is appropriate for the activities and risks, and that is informed by the assessment, and any other competency evaluation you undertake.

When I joined my present company no one had been through any induction of any sort, so from the MD down I put them through safety requirements and manual handling presentation which included a hands on practical. Whilst most items are rarely not heavier than a box of copier paper and usually the weight of a full lever arch file, all new starters now cover this subject. Five years on and people seeing the new starters going through the manual handling training have an indirect refresher, so far I've had no reported back injuries at all this year (that's jinxed it). This covers both office and shop floor staff. As for certification all attendees sign a training record to confirm participation. So they do not receive a cert but are certified indirectly and by attempting to taken holistic approach my injury stats have fallen. Hope this helps? Ramble over Badger

Is it appropriate and reasonably practicable for you to provide Manual handling training? If yes, but you choose not to carry it out and someone is injured, then under section (4)(1)(B)(11) of the Manual Handling Operations regulations(MHOR) 1992, you could be deemed to have failed in your legal duty.